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Australian Lender Names New Client "Advocate"

Tom Burroughes

27 June 2018

National Australia Bank which, like its peers, has been rapped by regulators over its business practices, has appointed Clare Petre as the new “independent customer advocate” for clients of its wealth products, services and advice. Her role expands the bank’s focus on how customer complaints and processes are handled, giving an independent voice to NAB clients, it said. 

The role, created in May 2015, was developed by NAB in its Customer Response Initiative set up to tackle poor advice from 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2015 that led to compensation payments. As at 25 May this year, NAB has paid over A$16 million to customers through this programme across 1,852 cases.

Petre follows NAB’s first wealth customer advocate, Professor Dimity Kingsford-Smith, who has returned to her full time professional role as Professor of Law at the University of NSW, having completed her tenure with NAB.

“Since the appointment of Professor Kingsford-Smith, we have continued to strengthen our complaints and review process so that we can get it right for our customers. Professor Kingsford-Smith challenged NAB in a meaningful and tangible way, and her contribution has been significant,” NAB Chief Customer Officer, Consumer Banking & Wealth, Andrew Hagger, said.

Explaining the process, the bank said that once customers have received the results of their case, as reviewed by the CRI, it encourages clients to get independent professional advice so that they can understand the results more clearly. 

Prior to her NAB role, Petre has worked in community, government, and media sectors. She is the chair of the Code of Conduct Committee for the Australian Council for International Develoipment, deputy chair of the Asylum Seekers Centre, a board member of City West Housing and Energy Consumers Australia, and a commissioner for the Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission. More recently she was chair of the consumer advisory panels for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and the Credit & Investments Ombudsman .

The bank, along with other Australian lenders and institutions, was criticised earlier this year for some of its practices. A review by ASIC of products offered by ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac and AMP found that 79 per cent of financial instruments on the firms’ approved product lists were from external companies, while the remaining 21 per cent were offered internally, or in-house. However, 68 per cent of clients’ funds were invested through in-house products, the regulator said, despite the number of external offerings being nearly four times higher.

The review, which took place between 2015 and 2017, was part of ASIC’s Wealth Management Project, a wide-reaching probe into Australia’s financial advice sector that began in October 2014, and has since resulted in around 50 advisors being banned from the industry for malpractice.